Oil produced by plants is one of the most energy-rich forms of reduced carbon available from nature. As crude oil supply declined, plant oils are gaining increasing interest as substitutes for petroleum-derived and non-renewable fuels. As one example, Hu et al., describes the use of microalgal triacylglycerols (TAGs) as feedstocks for biofuel production (Hu et al., The Plant J., 54(4):621-639 (2008).
One of the biggest challenges in using plant oils is the limited growing areas available for plants whose oil is designated for the biofuel industry along with finite supplies of fertilizers, pesticides, and resources for growing these plants and processing their oils. Thus, compositions and methods are needed for increasing the amount of harvestable amount of plant oils from plants per acre for decreasing the cost per liter of plant oil. Further, compositions and methods are needed for growing oil crop plants for increasing the amount of harvestable oil in plants destined as sources of biofuel.